11th chapter of the book of Romans,
Romans chapter 11. We'll pray together. I encourage you to remember our
sick brethren, sisters. Father in heaven, thank you that
you let us come. Thank you for the marvelous,
wonderful grace of our God. was given to us, which is a gift
of God, a favor of God, given to us in Christ. Father, we thank You that You
put us in Christ, according as Thou has chosen
us in Christ. foundation of the world. You put us in Christ. And we stayed where you put us, in Christ. We didn't fall in Christ, Father. We fell in ourselves. Where You put us, You preserved
us. And in time, Father, Your time,
according to Your will and purpose and Your good pleasure, You called
us with a holy calling. Made the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was just a person in history, to us, Father, to be precious
to our souls. Made us to know who he was and
who he is. What he's accomplished on our
behalf. Made us to know that he's the
governor's head, the shirt of the sheep. Made us to know, Father, that.
He said, I'll be responsible for him. So I become a man. as the God-man, he answered all
of our claims, all the claims that was against us, all the
charges that was against us, all the debts that we owed, met
all of our needs as wandering sinners. Much to be thankful
for this evening, Father, that we've got a good hope, our hopes
in him. life eternal. Thank you, Father,
for who you are, the true and the living God, compassionate,
merciful and kind, full of truth and full of glory and holiness. Thank you for your favor and
your grace. Bless us together with some understanding
here this evening. specific knowledge concerning
yourself, who you are. Help us to grow with this knowledge, to be thankful, appreciative. We understand, Father, that we have no merit of our own,
no righteousness of our own. Our righteousness at its best
as his filthy rags. Oh, amazing grace, how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now I see. I once was blind, but now I see. Lost and found. Oh, Father in
heaven, thank you. Bless, Father, thy people here. Bless us all, Father. Strengthen
us. Encourage us. Build us up in
the most holy faith. Give us strength. Make us strong
in the Lord. Make us skillful in His Word.
Make us useful, Father, to serve this generation. Be a good witness
concerning the Lord Jesus. Remember our sick ones. Pray
for each one of them, Father. And in particular, do we remember
a bunch. Pray for him, Father. Help him
tonight in the hospital. Turn his mind and his intelligence, his heart,
his soul. Turn all these that makes up
himself. to Thee, Father, by trust in
Thee, in the Lord Jesus. Have mercy, we pray, on us all. In His name, that name above
every name, the blessed Lamb of God. Amen. Now, in verse 28
of this eleventh chapter of the book of Romans, The twenty-seventh verse says,
For this is my covenant unto them, that I shall take away their
sins. He's going to take away somebody's sins. I don't know that he's talking
about everybody, but there are specific people that he refers
to. He's going to take away their
sins. If he takes away their sins,
then there will be no charge against them. If they have no
sins, what can they be charged with? Take them away. He took somebody's
sins away. Made an end of them, he said. concerning the scapegoats. He
laid his hand on the scapegoat, transferring the sins of the
people to the scapegoat. And he found a faithful man that
would put a rope around that scapegoat's neck and take him
in the wilderness of no return. And he said that The taking away
of our sins was so complete that if a man searched for them, he
couldn't find them. They're gone. They're gone. Forever gone. Never to rise up
and haunt me anymore. Never rise up in judgment because
they're gone. He took them away. Now, either
he did or he didn't. Either it's so or it's not so. Well, it's so, for the Bible
tells me so. Well, if I quit right there,
that would be enough to see you through the night, wouldn't it? That would be enough. That would
fill most people's cup, if they knew for a certainty. that they'd stand before the
judgment bar of God and be declared that their sins were forgiven,
everything's all right. Yeah, it's my covenant with them,
made in the covenant. God makes a covenant. He never
goes back on His word. No such thing as God being a
backslider as to His Word. What He says is true. What He
says will come to pass. Then He says, As concerning the
gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the
election. What in the world is He talking
about? As touching the election. Who's running? An election has something to
do with a candidate, someone running for office. Well, certainly our Lord's not
running for office. The election he's talking about
is the sovereign choice of God. He made a choice, called it election. He elected so many. As touching
the election, they are beloved. Beloved. They are beloved by
who? And for what reason? For the
Father's sake. Well, if the Father loves you,
the Father loves me. What else is there? If the Father
loves me, what other need do I have? I have
no other need if the Father loves me. Well, He loves sinners, and I qualify I qualify there because I'm a sinner. That's
what qualifies a man for eternal life, is a sinner. He didn't
come to save righteous people. He came to save sinners. One of the old writers says,
A sinner is a sacred thing. for God has made him so. Only
God can make you know that you are a sinner. That is reason
he is a sacred thing, the result of the work of the Spirit of
God, bringing man to see himself as he is, causing him to admit
in his conscience, in his heart, God is right. I am guilty. I
am guilty. I am guilty. The gifts and the calling of
God are without repentance. The gift of eternal life. If
God gives the gift of eternal life in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He'll never change His mind. He won't change. No repentance. He's not going to say, Well,
I made a mistake. I underestimated this fellow. I thought he was
going to do this, but he didn't. I'll recall. Oh, no. the gifts and the calling of
God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have
not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they
also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of
the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Let me read again this verse
in Romans 11, verses 34 and 35, which says, For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor, who hath been available to give
him advice, or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again. very important truth as to who God is, is this, God
is independent. A condition or a situation that
every man aspires to, every person aspires to be in that situation
where he is independent. We were talking here before church about the lottery. Daryl and Carl were talking about
a woman that they knew who told them that she had won a million
dollars in Arizona or Colorado. And she said, we haven't got
any of it left. It's all gone. Spent it all. And then Ben was telling me that
up where he lives, that within two or three miles
of one another, there's six millionaires. Six people that's got a million
dollars. Now every man, woman, or girl,
in their right mind, would like to be in that situation, like
to have a million dollars. Aspire to be a millionaire. If you was a millionaire, you
could be independent, couldn't you? Independent. That is, you
wouldn't have to depend on anybody. You could call them up if you
wanted to and say, cancel my Social Security. I wouldn't, probably. It isn't
likely that I'd do that. But that's just a thought, you
know. Be independent. God is independent. You'd think you'd be independent
if you had a million dollars, but that million dollars would
have some way of getting away from you. You'd lose your independence
in a hurry. God is independent, and He is the one and only that is
really independent. He don't depend on nothing. He's independent. God is independent. Our Father in heaven is independent. We have one who's independent,
who needs no help from anybody. Independent. Independent to be
independent It means you're free. It means that you're not dependent. If you're independent, you're
not dependent. That is, you're not subject to
control by somebody else. It means you don't have to rely
on others. It means that you're self-governing. It means that you are not subordinate
to others, independent. God is independent. Now, the
independency of God does not preclude the employment of his
creatures in accomplishing his will. But it means that he does
not depend upon them. He uses them to accomplish his
will, but he is not dependent upon them to accomplish his will. He is independent. the popular
expression that you hear in carnal Christianity that God is dependent
upon us. That makes him weaker than we
are, weaker than we are if he is dependent upon us. Now, God
may use us in furthering his cause, but what he does with
us he could easily do without us because he is independent. God is independent. He derives no wisdom or strength
or power from his creatures. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? For who hath been his counselor? He derives nothing from flesh. Who hath been his counselor,
instructor? Paul in 2 Corinthians here, Paul
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, makes this observation. chapter 4 and verse 7. It says, But we have this treasure. Paul says, We have this gospel.
The gospel is likened unto a treasure, a pearl of great price. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels. or we have this gospel in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. In that seventh verse, we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Now, the gospel is proclaimed
and preached by lips of clay. But the power of conversion is
not in the man who speaks, but it is in the demonstration of
the Spirit and the demonstration of power so that the faith which
is a gift of God, so that the faith of the sinner is not the
result of a man's wisdom, but it is the result of the power
of God. Now, faith is not the result
of man's persuasive power, it is the fruit of the Spirit of
God It is a gift of God. By grace are ye saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, for it is a gift of God. Now, the new birth, we talk about
being born again, and every man that is a Christian is saved. That man has been born again. Now, we are not born again as
the result of our will. We are not born again as the
result of the flesh in any sense of the word. But the Bible does
teach, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are born again, as the
result of the will of God. Here in John chapter 3, I think,
John chapter 1 and verse 13, I think maybe, it says that the Lord Jesus Christ
came unto his own people. and his own received him not.
That is, he came under the Jewish nation. But they wouldn't receive him.
They rejected him. The Bible says that he was despised
and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Rejected
and despised from the manger to the cross. The world hated
him, didn't want him. He came into this world, but
he made this world. He came into this world, but
the inhabitants of this world wouldn't have him. He came into
his own, but his own received him. We don't want you. We don't
want you. You're a winebibber. You're a winebibber. You're an
imposter. But as many as received him, but there were some that
received him. It all goes back to that election business, the
will and purpose of God. But as many as received him,
to them. He gave power, that means right,
privilege, or authority. He gave them power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now,
listen to this. I said at the outset here that faith is not
the result of man's persuasive power, neither is it the result
of man's will, neither is it the result of the flesh, which
were born not of blood nor the will of man, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. He gave them power
to become the sons of God, which were born, born of the Spirit
of God, regenerated, born again, which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but of God. The new birth is not the result
of man's will. It is not the result of the will
of the flesh. It is the result of God. Now,
when Moses, there in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8, when
he spoke to Israel, he cautioned the Israelites against saying, that it was their power. He cautioned
them against saying, now, it was my power or our power that
hath gotten me this wealth. He cautioned them in saying that
against God, saying, it was my power, my ingenuity that hath
gotten me this wealth. And he said to them, Moses, he
said, Remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee
power to get well. Also the Lord taught his people
to pray. They said, Your disciples will
teach us to pray. And he said in his prayer, he
said, you say, give us our daily bread. You give us our daily
bread. Well, in saying all that leads
me to say that man, although all that I've said thus far is
certainly solemn and true and cannot be discredited, in any
way. Yet man is a responsible creature. He's responsible to do all that
God commands him to do. He's responsible to do it. He's
responsible to work for his bread, but after all his work, he's
still dependent upon God for his bread, for God has said,
give us, pray that you'll give us bread. Even though he does
work, yet he's responsible and dependent upon God to receive
this bread because God gives this bread. No man who can work
has the right to expect bread apart from working. If he can't work, if he can't
work, that's something else. But if he can work, he has no
right to expect bread apart from work. Not because God cannot
give bread without work, but because he will not put a premium
on man's slothfulness and laziness. And that's true. Now, in another
area here, it is God's will of command and not His will of purpose
that men are responsible to do or to perform. It was His will
and His purpose that the Lord Jesus Christ be crucified, but
it was not His will of command. And there is a difference between
the will of God's purpose and the will of His command. Now,
I have said that it is God's will of command and not His will
of purpose that men are responsible to do or perform. It was His
will of purpose that the Lord Jesus be crucified But it was
not his will of command. Now, it was not his will of command
in putting the Lord Jesus Christ to death. Men were fulfilling
the purpose of God. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was purposed by God in eternity from before the foundation of
the world. God's will of purpose was to
put Jesus Christ unto them. So men fulfilled the purpose
of God in doing so. But now they were not obeying
the command of God. God did not command them to do
that. But before time ever was, it
was His will and purpose. But He never commanded them to
do that. Now, there cannot be any sin
in doing what God has commanded. If God has commanded something
to do and we do it, there cannot be no sin in that. The Bible
tells us that these that crucified or put the Lord Jesus Christ
to death, they did so with wicked hands and they, therefore, were
not obeying God's command. They did that because they hated
him and desired to shut him up and do away with him and have their own conscience clear
in this matter, to get rid of him. Now, God's will of purpose
determines whether we live or die. That is, there's a time
to be born, there's a time to pick up stones, there's a time
to cast stones down, there's a time to plant, and there's
a time to reap, and there's a time to live, and there's a time to
die according to the will and purpose of God, that as far as
God is concerned, He knows the time, the place, and the means
that death will come to each one of us. He knows that. So
it's the will and purpose of God, whether we live or die,
But it is His will of command that we regard the laws of hell. For instance, if you say, well,
I'm going to walk in front of that car out there, and because
I'm not going to die until God's time comes, why, it'll be God's
time if you walk out there. If you walk out in front of that
car, that'll be God's time for you. You'll be wound up in just
a little bit. break every bone in your body
and throw you for about 40 feet down the road. Well, it's his
will and command that we regard what's right and what's wrong.
That's his will of command. It's his will of command that
you love God with all your heart. That's his command. Love God. Love God. That's the command. There's no getting away from
that. That's as plain as the nose on your face. Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. That's the command of God. We
don't know anything about the will and purpose here, but we
know what the command is. We're to love God with all of
our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. We're not to have
any false gods. We're not to have any idols.
That's the command of God. Well, nobody quits eating because
he believes that God's will and purpose determines whether he
lives or dies. Now, God's will and purpose is
eternal. It is not an afterthought with
God. It's eternal. It always was, God's will and
purpose. God right now is not, as some
men would have us to believe, forming some new will and purpose. God doesn't change His mind.
We change our minds, but God never changes His. What He has willed and purposed
in eternity past will come to pass, come hell or high water. Whatever His will or His purpose
is, it will come to pass. He's not forming any new person.
What is to be, will be. What is to be, will be. Regardless, whatever it is it
will be, it will come to pass. Whatever God's will is, whatever
His purpose is, it will come to pass. He's not forming any
new one. The Bible says, Known unto God
all of his works from the beginning of the world. Everything that's
going to take place is known by God before there ever was
a world, before there was any foundation ever dug to put this
world on top of. God knew everything that was
going to come to pass. His purpose is not only eternal,
but it's always effectual. It always gets the job done.
It's always realized. He has no wishes with himself
which he cannot perform. He doesn't wish to do something,
but he can't do it. We want to do something many
times, but we lack the intelligence or the power to get the job done. And another thing about God's
will and purpose is, It's not only effectual, it's immutable,
it never changes. God never changes His will, God
never changes His purpose. There's only two possible reasons
for anybody to change his will or change his purpose. It must
either be because he sees that what he purposes, it's not wise,
or he sees of what he hath purposed, he can't realize, he can't accomplish
that. But not so with God. These reasons
here can't be applied to God. There's nothing impossible for
God. He said in one place, he said,
Is there anything too hard for God? I mean, if God's our Father,
we've got something on our side, haven't we? If God's for us,
now he's either for us or against us. But if he's for us, who can
be against us? If it's the mind and the will
and the purpose of God to save us, then who can be against us? Who can keep us from being saved?
Nobody. You can't keep yourself from
being saved if it's in the will and mind and purpose of God.
All the works of God are known from the beginning. He knows
who they are and where they're at and what the situation is
and so forth. God's will and purpose is the
cause of us being saved. That's the cause. Election is
of God. Election is in the will and purpose
of God. That's the cause. set us apart, put us in Christ,
kept us where he put us, preserved us there, called us here in time,
all according to the will and the purpose of God. It never changes. It's effectual. It's eternal. The will and purpose
of God. Well, if we're saved, it's because
we're born again. And I already read to you from
John where it says, born not of the will of the flesh, not
of man, but of God, born of God. You might say that behind every
action there is a will. There must be a will. behind
every action, a wheel. You cannot born yourself into
the Kingdom of God. God must be behind that action. God must do it. God must have
all the glory for everything that He does. He must have that
glory. He's independent. He is sovereign. He forms no new plans. He has
no new purposes. All his purposes were purposed
in himself before time ever was, and they're being carried out
and fulfilled here in this life. That's our God and our Father,
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. His will and purpose
will be done. And we need to get in on it by
obeying his commands. What he commands us to do, let's
do it heartily. Let's do it with rejoicing, joy
in our heart, the command of God. The Bible is full of them. He commands us to pray. He commands
us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as some
other men do or some others do. That's a command of God. We're
responsible to do that. This will and purpose, sometimes
we don't know about that. But we do know about His commands.
We're responsible to keep the commands of God. He said, If a man don't work,
he don't eat. We're responsible to work. Keep the commands of God. Well,
I hope you see what I'm talking about. What I'm trying to say
is that God's independent and He doesn't need any help. Although
He uses us. Although He uses men and women,
boys and girls. But it's all included in His
will and His purpose. But he could do the same thing
without us. He doesn't need us, but he does use us. You don't
have to. He could do it without us. So I'm thankful, though, that
we've got a number of people here this evening who come out,
come to this place on a Sunday night and want to hear from God. want to hear from Him, want to
be obedient, want to keep His commandments, knowing that the
commandments don't save Him.